Nature and Travel Photography by Robert Palosaari

Spiders

Call me crazy, but I've always had a fascination with spiders and virtually no arachnophobia. They can be startling at first sight, but whenever I see one (or many) sitting pretty and I have a camera handy, I love to get in close and capture what it is that makes them and their mysterious world so interesting. Some are brightly colored. Others are rarely found. I admire the regal way that they lie in wait, surveying all in their suspended realm. I'm not into handling them (that can freak me out). But I'll hold my camera as close as possible to them, for as long as it takes, to get just the right angle and composition. I've set this gallery apart so as not to alarm those with that certain phobia. Enjoy!

Grass Spider

A grass spider sits upon its web, made colorful by reflections of the sun's rays. Arachnids like these spin webs into a sheet near the ground. The surface is non-sticky, but any insect walking across it sends vibrations to its keeper who then springs out of its funnel-shaped enclosure near the edge of the web. Agelenopsis aperta, as it is known to scientists, is a very fast runner, so it usually has no trouble chasing down its unsuspecting prey. This one seems docile enough just catching some sun on a warm morning. From a wildlife photography standpoint, it's best to try to achieve the same eye level as your subject to bring the viewer into its world. This can be a challenge with spiders so low to the ground. To capture this image, I carefully slid open a basement window at my home and found just the right angle. I like how all of the individual hairs on its long legs and brown body gleam in the sunlight, and how the spectrum of color on the web is apparent from this angle.